Sunday, January 13, 2008

Richardson...Weighs...In...On...Government...Deficit

Ray Richardson, the ellipsis-happy columnist at the Windham Independent, offers his thoughts for solving Maine's budget deficit in the January 10 issue of the Windham weekly.Richardson, who lives in Westbrook and hosts a morning talk show on WLOB, writes that Maine government would be better off if the state cut the income tax rates in half. Moreover, Richardson writes that this cut in the income tax rate should be complemented by a cut in government spending by requiring its employees to pay around twenty percent of their health insurance costs, freezing the hiring of new state workers, and cutting upper management and patronage jobs within government.Anyone who has read Richardson's column or listened to his radio program should not necessarily be surprised by his prescriptions. However, his unambivelant praise for a Democrat (in this case, Public Utilities Commission Chairman Kurt Adams) did catch me off-guard.- John C.L. Morgan